Look past Net revolution, pro says

CENTRAL VALLEY — Mark Zinder, the keynote speaker at Orange County Partnership's investor breakfast, is a fan of the yellow line that appears on his flat screen TV during football games.

It allows him to see whether or not a runner picks up a first down.

What he's not wild about are the five or more men who run out onto the field with chains to accomplish the same feat as the computer-generated line. What about lasers, he wonders?

The measuring task is an example of a job that hasn't yet been a victim of "creative destruction," a process that occurs during a technological revolution, Zinder said.

According to Zinder, the United States is in the "final buildout" phase of the current Internet and computer-oriented revolution, which began when the microprocessor was invented in 1971. Final buildout is one of the last phases before a new technological revolution starts to gain traction, he said.

Zinder, who worked as national spokesman for Franklin Templeton Investments before starting his own firm in 2004, spoke to an audience of 200 Thursday morning at the Falkirk Estate and Country Club. The breakfast was a "thank you" event for the businesses and organizations that provide almost 60 percent of the Partnership's annual revenue.

"Creative destruction" is actually a sign of progress, he said, because the jobs that were essential in an earlier phase are no longer necessary.

The "frenzy" phase of a revolution, i.e. the dot-com boom of the late 1990s, precedes collapse, or the dot-com bust that followed, according to Zinder.

The country will exit final buildout when Internet technology becomes invisible — an essential but unnoticed part of life, like a car.

Zinder said the next revolution may be biotechnology.

Before Zinder's speech, Orange County Partnership President and CEO Maureen Halahan told the audience she has seen the Tappan Zee Bridge project act as a "magnet" for new business in Orange County.

Since the beginning of the year, she has seen interest in locating in the area from a manufacturer of precast infrastructure and several contracting firms, she said in an interview after the event.

But no deals have closed, Halahan said.

"People want to position themselves for that type of structured development," she said.